Reviewing the Review Sites.

Legitimate social media is a way for all of us to share our opinions or do some research before we decide to buy. However, can you believe what you read on review sites? Consider Astroturfing. That’s’ what happens when companies, political parties or special interest groups pay people to give positive reviews about products they have never tried. This is the dark side of social marketing. It can be worse. Are unscrupulous companies paying people to hand out negative reviews?  Last week a client called me and complained of a scathing review they received on a popular site. The reviewer stated that they had arrived early and were denied entry leaving them out in cold rainy weather. It went on to say that the owner of the business actually pointed at his watch and shook his head no to emphasize it. No such event ever happened. There is no way to control what disgruntled employees or your competition may say about you. The problem is, there is also no way for your customers to know whether their negative or positive claim is legitimate. To make matters worse, there is no way to respond directly to the reviewer. It seems that more and more people are taking advise from people who post reviews on these sites and not from professionals with experience in the industry. Even if they know the person giving the review, they may notknow the circumstances. Social Media is about having a two-way conversation. So where is the platform for retort? People are not stupid. Those sites not policing themselves will soon find that they risk losing credibility with their audience. The fact that some companies could use social media to create a false buzz should cause us all to be very carful about who’s reviews we are reading.